Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov.
“Admiral Kuznetsov lost millions of dollars in a fire in 2019
Russia’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, will undergo sea trials in 2022 after completing refurbishment, shipbuilding sources told Russian official media.
According to Popular Mechanics 21, the cursed carrier is in desperate need of a new one, but Russia lacks the funds and industrial capacity to invest in a limited upgrade. Its Su (Su)-33 and MiG (MiG)-29 aircraft will be increased from 24 to 26.
In addition, it will be retrofitted with electric warfare, communications and network systems, as well as the Pantsir-M proximity weapon system and a new flight system to assist in the landing and takeoff of naval aircraft. In addition, it will even receive a $3.4 million (nearly $100 million) paint job.
“The Admiral Kuznetsov was built in 1981, but was not deployed for the first time until 1996. In recent years, it has had a series of bad luck, with one crew member killed in 2009 when a wire caught fire, and in 2012 when it broke down off France and was towed back by a tugboat.
Then in 2016, it lost two fighter planes in just two weeks. In 2018, it was in the Safonovo shipyard floating dock to be repaired and ready to leave the dock when it suddenly sank. And when the dock sank, a crane smashed into the deck of the carrier, leaving not only a large 4×5-meter hole, but also causing injuries to four people. As a result of this incident, its scheduled upgrade was further complicated.
However, its bad luck was not yet over when it received repairs at the end of 2019, and the fire quickly spread to the internal structure due to a fire started by careless workers welding, causing millions of dollars in damage. To make matters worse, funds have been stretched to the limit, and last year the shipyard director was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement, having embezzled some $500,000 (about 14 million Taiwan dollars) for cleaning the tanks.
Over the past 15 years, Russia has announced several times that it wants to build a new aircraft carrier to replace the Admiral Kuznetsov. However, Russia lacks the funds to build a fully modern aircraft carrier, and the shipyard does not have enough space to build such a large surface ship. In the end, they had to turn back and continue to rely on this long-overdue decommissioning of the dilapidated carrier. And will the Admiral Kuznetsov really be ready for sea trials next year? Perhaps only time will tell.
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